Opposition leaders, led by the Congress, did not circulate the copies of the notice submitted to the vice president, but issued a four-page press statement listing out the reasons along with five charges against CJI Dipak Misra.

L-R) Senior Opposition and Congress leader Gulam Nabi Azad, Kapil Sibal, D Raja and KTS. Tulsi speak to the media after seven opposition parties led by the Congress submitted a notice seeking the impeachment of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra to vice president and Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu, in New Delhi on April 20, 2018.(Raj K Raj/HT Photo)

The press conference by leaders of the Congress and other parties on Friday and making public the contents of their notice of impeachment motion against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra is a clear violation of provisions of the handbook for members of the Rajya Sabha, parliament officials said on Saturday.

The Congress and six other opposition parties on Friday submitted the notice of an impeachment motion for the removal of the CJI on five grounds of “misbehaviour”.

Besides the Congress, those who signed the notice include members of the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Communist Party of India-Marxist, or CPI (M), Communist Party of India (CPI), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML).

After submitting the notice to Rajya Sabha chairperson M Venkaiah Naidu at his residence, senior Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Kapil Sibal, flanked by CPI’s D Raja and NCP’s Vandana Chavan, addressed a news conference at the Constitution Club of India in the national capital.

While the leaders did not circulate the copies of the notice, a four-page press statement listing out the reasons along with five charges against the CJI was distributed among the journalists.

According to the handbook for Rajya Sabha members, a notice for raising a matter in the House should not be given publicity by any member or other person until it has been admitted by the Chairman and circulated to members. A member should not raise the issue of a notice given by him and pending consideration of the Chairman.

The officials cited in the first instance, who did not want to be named and to whom the notice had been referred to by Naidu, have identified this violation.

This assumes importance in the context of political overtones surrounding the first of its kind move against the CJI, the officials added.

The Congress did not offer any comment on the Rajya Sabha officials’ assertion.